Janet Yellen: Bitcoin Is ‘Anything But’ A Useful Store of Value

Janet Yellen: Bitcoin Is ‘Anything But’ A Useful Store of Value

During an interview at the 2018 Canada FinTech Forum in Montreal on Monday, Janet Yellen, the former chair of the Federal Reserve, criticizes bitcoin and other cryptocurrency assets saying bitcoin is “anything but” a useful store of value. Her comments made local and worldwide news for the cryptocurrency industry as she criticized Bitcoin for its lack

During an interview at the 2018 Canada FinTech Forum in Montreal on Monday, Janet Yellen, the former chair of the Federal Reserve, criticizes bitcoin and other cryptocurrency assets saying bitcoin is “anything but” a useful store of value.

Her comments made local and worldwide news for the cryptocurrency industry as she criticized Bitcoin for its lack of value. The original report on her interview came from Canadian financial news outlet Kitco.

According to Janet, Bitcoin is not used for a lot of transactions, it’s not a stable source of value, and it’s not an efficient means of processing payments. It’s very slow in handling payments. It has difficulty because of its very decentralized nature.

The rationale articulated by Yellen during the course of her speech as to why Bitcoin is unsuitable as a currency ran along similar lines to that of Roubini. She maintained that very few transactions are actually handled by Bitcoin whilst many of those that do are illicit transactions. On that subject she added:

“I worry about the implications with the use of cryptocurrencies for terrorists, financing money laundering and the like.”

She also condemned Bitcoin on the basis that for something to be a currency, it needs to be a stable source of value and “Bitcoin is anything but”.

Yellen’s speech Monday echoes not only her own previous comments on crypto but also those made earlier this month by economist Nouriel Roubini, an outspoken cryptocurrency naysayer who foresees the entire ecosystem failing.